Build document objects that easily search and use data harvested by bots

hvDiscuss and develop some important bot features like data parsing, bot tracing, storing data, and more

Who This Book Is For

Instant Simple Botting with PHP targets programmers of all levels who are familiar with common PHP functions and syntax, and who want to learn about bots and how to design and develop bots using objects.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Instant Simple Botting with PHP

So, what is Simple Botting with PHP?

Installation

Quick start - developing a bot

Top 5 features you need to know about

People and places you should get to know

What You Will Learn

Discover how to send HTTP requests, and how to handle the responses and response codes

Build a basic web bot capable of harvesting data

Develop and use document objects for web bot usage

Find values or regular expression patterns in bot data

Store data gathered by your bots

Improve debugging by adding bot tracing

Add advanced data parsing methods to your bot document class

Learn how to add stealth to your bots

Find out more about developing spider bots

In Detail

Bots can be used effortlessly to execute projects and tasks that will save time and funds. Bots are powerful tools that should be in every knowledgeable programmer’s toolbox. Developing and integrating bots into your programs may be easier than expected. They simply perform the tasks that they were designed to complete, which makes them the perfect solution for many task requirements.

Instant Simple Botting with PHP is an easy-to-read book that will give you the knowledge required to design and develop ready-to-use bots. The book covers useful bot features that can be added to the bots created during the course of the book. Learn how to improve your efficiency as a programmer or software system administrator by unleashing the power of bots.

Instant Simple Botting with PHP walks you through HTTP requests and responses, how to build basic bots, how to use objects to make using bots easier, and how to parse and utilize data retrieved by bots.

This book will also teach you how to plan ahead when designing bots, what types of methods can be helpful when developing bots, and various objects that can be used with bots, like document objects. You will also learn about bot stealth, which is an important aspect of any bot that is designed to complete bulky tasks, such as spider crawling thousands of pages of a website.

After reading this book, you should be able to build your own bots, understand the benefits and advantages of using objects to create web robots and bot related objects, and how to parse and use the data your bots gather.

Authors

Shay Michael Anderson

Shay Michael Anderson has been programming and developing software since 1999. He quickly decided on software development as his career and enrolled in a college. He achieved his Bachelor of Science in Software Engineering degree through his studies at Oregon Tech and Colorado Tech. He then received a Master of Science in Software Systems Management from Colorado Tech. While earning his degrees in college, he achieved the undergraduate certificates for Software Engineering Application, Software Engineering Process, Object-Oriented Methods, and Unix Network Administration, and the graduate certificates for Systems Analysis and Integration, Network and Telecommunications, Data Management, and Project Management. Ever since he graduated from college he has been employed as a Web Application Developer, a Software Engineer, and a senior Software Engineer.
He is currently working as a senior Software Engineer for a large e-commerce and retail company. He develops and manages massive software systems, which are backed by a database cluster storing over a billion records. He also publishes open source software on his website, www.shayanderson.com.

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Learning

As a new user, these step-by-step tutorial guides will give you all the practical skills necessary to become competent and efficient.

Beginner's Guide

Friendly, informal tutorials that provide a practical introduction using examples, activities, and challenges.

Essentials

Fast paced, concentrated introductions showing the quickest way to put the tool to work in the real world.

Cookbook

A collection of practical self-contained recipes that all users of the technology will find useful for building more powerful and reliable systems.

Blueprints

Guides you through the most common types of project you'll encounter, giving you end-to-end guidance on how to build your specific solution quickly and reliably.

Mastering

Take your skills to the next level with advanced tutorials that will give you confidence to master the tool's most powerful features.

Starting

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Progressing

Building on core skills you already have, these titles share solutions and expertise so you become a highly productive power user.